Teenager Proved Guilty of Hacking Swedish Universities’ Computers

A 19-year-old Swedish teenager suspected of breaking into Cisco Systems Inc.'s network in United States was legally found guilty on November 19, 2007 of invading the computer networks of three universities in Sweden.

Ignoring a lower court's acquittal, the Svea Court of Appeal sentenced the culprit on certain conditions and ordered him to compensate the damages he caused to the universities by paying 160,000 Kroner (US$ 25,000). The boy, under the Swedish privacy regulations, couldn't be name, has decided to make an appeal.

The teenager's lawyer, Thomas Olsson, said that the court's decision surprised him and so he would advise his client to put up an appeal. He said that no link was established at all between his client's PC and the universities' computers. Thelocal published this in news on November 19, 2007.

Meanwhile, Head of the police IT crimes division, Bosse Norgren, said that colleges across the country had been reporting to police that their computers had been breached. Thelocal published this on November 19, 2007.

According to the officials, the teenager wanted to compromise the systems with an intention to utilize their inbuilt computer power. One of the systems he tried to take over was Sweden's fastest computer, the supercomputer at Linkoping University.

However, there was no monetary motivation behind the culprit's act, thinks the court. Rather, it gave an impression of the traditional way of hacking where a boy seated at his computer keeps on accumulating knowledge for the sake of challenge and fun, officials added.

Apart from this case, the FBI and Swedish police are jointly investigating into the possible involvement of the boy into the attack on Cisco Systems. FBI agents went to Sweden in 2006 to interrogate the teenager to find out if he was involved in the case.

The court has also found the teenager responsible for hacking into the computer systems of three universities in Uppsala, Linkoping and Umea in 2004.

But the Department of Justice in the US now wants Swedish authorities to take over the investigation, according to Catherine Rudstrom, a prosecutor. IHT published this news on November 19, 2007.